Evacuation plan for Aussie ship passengers

AUSTRALIANS stranded on the coronavirus-hit cruise ship off the coast of Japan will be flown home on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Australians currently on board the Diamond Princess would have to face a further 14 days of quarantine at a workers’ village outside Darwin.

“I thank the Japanese government for the care and assistance they have provided to those Australians who have been onboard the vessel,” he told reporters in Melbourne on Monday.

About 200 Australians are on the ship, which has been in quarantine in the port of Yokohama for more than two weeks.

Seventy more people on board were confirmed to have the virus on Sunday, bringing the number of cases from the ship to 355, with 16 of them Australians.

Those who tested positive for the virus are being treated in Japan.

On Friday it was reported an elderly Perth man on board the boat had tested positive for the virus.

Australian infectious disease expert Paul Armstrong is in Japan, assessing the situation on board the ship, and will report to cabinet’s national security committee.

The Australians on board must pass a coronavirus test before they can be brought home, and elderly people will be given priority in the evacuation.

Health Minister Greg Hunt said Dr Armstrong’s advice would be crucial to the government’s next move on the cruise ship.

“If his advice is that there has been in any way a secondary round of infections, and obviously the presumption is that’s the case, then we’re looking to work with Qantas to bring these people home,” he told the Seven Network.

Some on the ship have raised the prospect of refusing to join any Australian evacuation, in the hope they can leave the ship as early as Friday when their existing quarantine period expires.

Of the 15 coronavirus cases in Australia, eight have recovered and the remaining seven are stable.

In China, the total number of people infected by the virus has risen to more than 68,500, with the number of deaths now at 1665.

Meanwhile, the first Australians to be quarantined on Christmas Island over the coronavirus have landed back on the mainland.

Two aircraft refuelled at Port Hedland in Western Australia on Monday afternoon.

One of the aircraft will continue on to Sydney and Canberra while the second will go to Adelaide and Melbourne.

A third flight will travel via Perth and Brisbane, leaving about 35 people on the island for another flight on Wednesday.

None of the people will be required to take further tests when they get home, as they were cleared just before they left the island.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison earlier thanked them for accepting the quarantine period in good faith.

“Some of the letters we’re seeing come out of there in recent days have just been lovely,” he said.